Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES

relaxing.run

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 165 posts

Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES

#31

Post by palmotea »

cm2012 wrote: post #23
moron4hire wrote: post #19

This is one of those cultural memes ("The Top Gun landing was ImPoSsIbLe") that tells on the person saying it for not having read the manual. If you don't read the manual, the landing sequence is pretty much impossible to figure out. If you do, you pretty much get it the first and every time after that.

That said, this is bad game design. A manual should never be needed.

> A manual should never be needed.

That's going too far.

Also, we're talking about the 8-bit era: 1) technical limits prevented a lot of in-game exposition that you could do now and 2) before the internet, people had fewer options for reading material. I read every manual for every NES and SNES game I ever had, multiple times. If I was into a game my options were limited to 1) play it, 2) read the manual if I couldn't play it (e.g. if I wasn't at home or not allowed to take over the TV to play).

Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES

#32

Post by thm »

jrjeksjd8d wrote: post #15
ghc wrote: post #13

I never played Top Gun, but I did grow up playing "Turn and Burn: No Fly Zone" for the SNES. All these years later, it's still amazing to me how much the graphics improved from one console generation to the next. I don't remember any other console transition being so consequential from a graphics perspective.

Super Mario 64 was an N64 launch title. Resident Evil 4 was a late Gamecube title. In my mind that's probably the biggest gap in graphical fidelity between generations of console. But I can see how going from NES games like Super Mario Bros to SNES games like Star Fox would be a close contender. PS1 -> PS2 -> PS3 or Xbox -> 360 feel more iterative because they started after the 3D era had already begun. We haven't ha…

I'd make that (non-Super) Mario Bros. -> SM RPG with the SA-1 Chip

Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES

#34

Post by phantasmish »

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #10

I remember this being next to impossible as a kid. The whole game was tough, but this was on another level.

My grandpa’s greatest gaming achievement was beating Top Gun: The Second Mission on the NES, in the ‘90s. Perhaps his training as a B-17 tail gunner gave him an advantage, lol (he never fought, war ended after he finished training but before he saw a combat sortie). He was better at the game than any of his grandkids, hahaha.

(I’m pretty sure it was the second mission, it was the one with the space shuttle launch or whatever at the end)

Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES

#36

Post by p_ing »

cm2012 wrote: post #23
moron4hire wrote: post #19

This is one of those cultural memes ("The Top Gun landing was ImPoSsIbLe") that tells on the person saying it for not having read the manual. If you don't read the manual, the landing sequence is pretty much impossible to figure out. If you do, you pretty much get it the first and every time after that.

That said, this is bad game design. A manual should never be needed.

Manuals in those days were often essential for background story, gameplay, and anti-piracy.

Your statement applies today; game design back then was different, manuals were not frowned upon and often exciting to read through. They were part of the game.

Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES

#38

Post by kmeisthax »

phantasmish wrote: post #22
moron4hire wrote: post #19

This is one of those cultural memes ("The Top Gun landing was ImPoSsIbLe") that tells on the person saying it for not having read the manual. If you don't read the manual, the landing sequence is pretty much impossible to figure out. If you do, you pretty much get it the first and every time after that.

The trick is just to know the numbers to aim for and ignore the instructions. I had the game and the manual, but I can’t recall if I ever read the manual. I played the game a ton and was maybe 50/50 at the landings, but just followed the on-screen instructions. I could probably have puzzled out the target numbers, but never did (was it in the manual?). Now you can just google the correct values and nail it every time…

A good chunk of the difficulty in the TMNT dam level comes from the fact that it has a lot of poorly implemented mechanics. Displaced Gamers has a really good video breaking all of it down here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHiFNWJXWgI

Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES

#39

Post by ceejayoz »

palmotea wrote: post #37
debo_ wrote: post #25

I never had much trouble landing on the carrier, but refueling in the sky? I think I only managed it a few times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vetEg8J-wcw

> 1398 mi/h Isn't that something like Mach 1.8? That's one fast tanker.

There is a F/A-18 tanker variant, at least.

But you don't do the refueling at those speeds, heh.

Post reply on HN